Dash-Cam Outtake: 1997 Chevrolet Lumina – Moving Along

My faithful dash-cam captures another CC. This time it’s the glorified Chevy Lumina, howling a pensioner (who else?).

 

I don’t mean to disrespect pensioners, of course- it’s just that I’ve yet to see a Lumina (or Grand Prix, or LeSabre for that matter) of this vintage driven by anyone under 65. And it must be said, here in Israel this is the age group that bought the Lumina in the first place.

I’ve left the original audio playing from the car stereo for your pleasure. Have a guess who it is.

 

Back in the 1990s, the Lumina was marketed in Israel as somewhat of a pseudo-luxury car. As the Americans among you will know, this is very different to how this car was marketed in the US. In Israel, American cars were always perceived to be an upmarket vehicle, if only for their size, which was usually larger-than-most-European/Japanese cars. Add to that the “amenities” these cars were imported with to Israel, such as original stereo, power locks/windows, not to mention power steering, auto gearbox and powerful 3.1 V6 (some cars were imported with the yet more powerful 3.8 unit).

So the older folks who wanted to ride in “an American car”‘ got a package that fit them like a glove, and as you can witness in this video- still do. Many of them regard these as the last real American cars, not counting the Cruze or Sonic as such. The pensioner that lives in the flat above mine still regrets selling his LeSabre, replacing it with a Citroen C5, as he told me.

As for the Lumina itself, I can only do harm by adding to Brendan Saur’s elaborate post, which you can read here.